


Changes in Regulations

by drelfina



Series: The Konoha Performance Incentive [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: AU of AU, Alternate Timeline, Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Eventual Happy Ending, M/M, Uchiha shisui whump, extremely dark universe, the hokage is dead long live the hokage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 15:43:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18694468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drelfina/pseuds/drelfina
Summary: Tsunade didn't become Hokage.Shimura Danzo did.Shisui should have run.





	Changes in Regulations

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Benefits and Perks are just a bonus](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18654925) by [drelfina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/drelfina/pseuds/drelfina). 



> NB: this is an alternate timeline for Benefits and Perks from Chapter 5. If Tsunade did not become Hokage but Danzo did, what would happen?

_Sandaime is dead. Who is hokage now?_

They needed strength - Suna had attacked them - under a false pretences on Sound's direction, and they weren't terribly sorry but Sound was who they had to build up against. And with such a public, obvious death, they needed someone who could lead them against Sound and rebuild strong alliances. 

Who was strong enough? Who was powerful enough? 

Four names emerged. 

Shimura Danzo. 

Hatake Kakashi. 

Senju Tsunade. 

And Uchiha Itachi. 

*** 

They would have wanted Senju Tsunade, but she was out of the Village. And Uchiha Itachi was far too young, they all agreed. 

So Shimura Danzo was Hokage, the Elders knew him. Agreed on him. 

And when Shisui heard, his heart almost stopped. 

***

No jounin were allowed out of the Village, and yet Shisui tried. 

No missions available, not for jounin, they had to stay in the Village till after the coronation. But Shisui had to try anyway. 

Wasted precious hours asking. 

Precious hours he should have spent running, because when he went back to the Uchiha compound, finally, there were four ANBU waiting. 

_Godaime-sama wants to see you, Uchiha-san._

*** 

Even then, Shisui could have run. 

Should have tried to run. 

With an entire ANBU squad, he would have had to fight, and if he'd fought, fought back hard enough, he would have been killed. 

"What can the Hokage-sama want with me," Shisui had said instead. Because he still valued his life, he still thought there was a way out. 

Hadn't thought Danzo would dare. 

"Please come with us, Uchiha Shisui." 

*** 

And he'd went. 

Willingly enough, flanked on all sides by ANBU, any one of whom could have been his little cousin. 

ANBU had never been a risk to _him_ , not like that. 

His fellow shinobi, because Shisui had done nothing wrong. 

It was daylight, after all. 

He'd be missed. 

They stopped him in front of the office. 

"Your hands, Uchiha-san," said one of the ANBU. 

"Why?" 

"Hands." 

And Shisui turned, then, but he hadn't started to _fight_ , but the ANBU moved faster. 

They expected a fight but Shisui hadn't, god he hadn't, and his chakra-points in his arms and hips were blocked before he could defend himself, and then chakra-cuffs were catching his hands. 

And then he was on his knees in front of Shimura Danzo, chakra cut off and deadened and Danzo standing and looking down. 

"My boy," he said. "I've been waiting a _long_ time for this." 

"Hokage-sama," Shisui said, and his heart was roaring in his ears, and if he weren't held up by the shoulder, he would have fallen over. "What have I done?" 

"Done? My _ungrateful_ boy. After everything I've done for _you_ , you dared betray me." And Danzo gestured, and a clawed ANBU hand dug into Shisui's hair, yanking his head back. 

Shisui shuddered, trying to - 

God. Anything. 

His chakra was leaden, sluggish. In this position, if he could have, he could have spat a katon in Danzo's face, if he wasn't ice up his spine and his fingers. 

He'd sworn to never be in this position again, on his knees. 

But now… 

"You and your traitorous clan," Danzo said, silkily, and then slapped a seal on Shisui's throat. 

It burned - right through his skin, and he was screaming, except he couldn't hear anything. 

"Take him to that - yes, there. He is going to tell me everything i want to know." 

***

"It's marvelous what R&D can come up with," Danzo said, when the ANBU had left Shisui kneeling in an array. 

His legs were still paralysed, he couldn't run, and trying to force chakra to his hands hurt. 

Danzo caught his wrists, and shoved them down, despite him trying his best to stay upright. 

Forced his hands into the small clear spaces, and the array brightened, a bright glow that he couldn't look away from, and the kanji slithered forward, biting, twisting into his fingers, and crawling up. 

He could be screaming but it wasn't coming out. Danzo had sealed his voice. 

The seal soaked into his arms, crawling up to his shoulders, and then spreading down. The entire vast sprawl of the seal's kanji sinking into every chakra point, along his network. 

Invading. 

Taking. 

And he was screaming, wordlessly, as they clawed down his spine and - 

No. 

Not his legs. Not - 

"There, now, you can't run now, can you, Shunshin no Shisui?" Danzo was leaning in, his mouth at Shisui's ear, and Shisui couldn't move. Couldn't get away and he was hyperventilating. 

"Now. Look at me." 

*** 

Chakra-suppressed, the cuffs were redundant, but Danzo liked them, because Shisui had tried to punch him - with them on, he could loop them onto the hook on the wall, haul Shisui upright and push his legs apart. 

Shisui had grown up, in the intervening years, but despite those inches, Danzo was hardly any smaller. 

"You used to have such lovely hair," Danzo said, touching his nape, and Shisui shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut. A hand in the back of his hair, yanking at his hitai-ate till it fell down, to pool uselessly at his throat, and then fingers fisting his hair till his scalp hurt. "Look. at . Me. I won't ask again. Shisui-kun." 

Shisui blinked open his eyes again, feeling the corners water, staring at Danzo's face. 

Like this, Danzo always used a henge of sorts. Had himself made younger, wrinkles eased away to the prime of his youth. 

The old cunning eyes out of that younger face had always always struck him as, incongruous. 

Terrifying. 

"Good boy." Danzo smiled. "You'll grow your hair out again, won't you? You had no right to cut it when it was so lovely." 

Shisui stared at him, and mouthed _Go to hell_. 

Danzo slapped him. 

"Keep a civil tongue in that pretty head of yours," Danzo said, coldly. "Or else your little cousin will find out what exactly you do for me." 

Cousin. 

Itachi? 

What? 

Danzo smiled. 

"Did you think you might be saved by your rising star Cousin? Little, dangerous, lethal Uchiha Itachi? No. All of you Uchiha are traitors, your entire Clan." 

Danzo tightened his hand in Shisui's hair as he pressed his lips to Shisui's throat, over the seal on his neck. 

He could feel it burn. 

"Every last one, my boy, are pets for anyone who can hold them." 

*** 

"How long," Danzo murmured, as Shisui shook on his knees, eyes watering, "do you think your little cousin, that perfect Uchiha heir, will last on his knees, mm? As long as you?" 

He didn't need any effort at all, to twist Shisui's hands behind him, push them further up his back until Shisui's spine bowed in a painful arch, pushing his face down against the floor until his shoulders met ground. 

Shisui thought he was screaming - his lips were torn, bleeding against the rough floor, but he couldn't do anything. 

Other than spread his legs, to ease. 

To ease. 

"If he was as clever as he is supposed to be, he will have run. Gone missing-nin." Danzo's voice was thoughtful, even as he pressed in. 

Slow. Thick. Slick. 

"And I will have the Hounds of Konoha on his heels." Danzo pushed, all the way in, hard to the root and Shisui gasped. 

A tiny, hurt twist of air stolen from his lungs. 

He wasn't facing Danzo. He didn't have to keep his eyes open, because they hurt. 

They hurt, so _much_. 

"Hunt. Him. Down." Slow, easy thrusts now as punctuation. "Maybe break every single one of his fingers."

Danzo was smiling at the nape of his neck as he bent over him, blanketing him with his weight, and Shisui shook. 

_No, no, NO._

"They can have him any way they'd like," Danzo murmured. "As often as they like." 

Shisui inhaled, and it felt like shattered glass. 

"As long as he doesn't come back." 

***

The first time Shisui bit him, he got backhanded. 

The second time though… "Did you know," Danzo said, digging his fingers into Shisui's jaw until he was forced to open his mouth, forced to accept the thick metal ring between his teeth, "there will be no way you can earn your little cousin's life? Certainly not with your past performance." 

Danzo touched the seal on Shisui's throat, and when Shisui yelled at the pain, this time he could hear his voice. Useless, hoarse garbled sound, but it was there. 

"You ran away, my pet. Tried to leave. So Uchiha Itachi is going to die." 

When Shisui tried to kick him, blinking watering eyes that were blurring, Danzo merely smiled and chained his knees apart. "But did you know, how very like you Uchiha Sasuke looks?" 

This time, when Shisui screamed, he could hear it echo. 

*** 

"Please, not Sasuke," Shisui managed. 

He didn't know how many days it had been. 

Danzo came and went irregularly, and the seal sunk into him ate Shisui's chakra and sapped his energy, to the point that the last several visits, Shisui had blacked out entirely midway through. 

And he'd wake up like this, cradled in Danzo's lap, his hand patting his hair and Shisui couldn't even cringe away. 

"Really," Danzo said, and Shisui didn't need the encouragement to look up. 

Look up and beg. 

"Please. Anything - D-danzo-sama. Just not Sasuke." 

Danzo reached down and touched his chin, fingers so, so gentle, as if he hadn't been digging bruises into Shisui's hips till they were more bruise than skin. 

"Since you asked so nicely, pet." 

"Thank you," Shisui said, exhausted, heart sick. "Danzo-sama." 

And he didn't look away.

***

Itachi had no idea what was happening, until one of his cousins came crashing into his room, startling him awake. 

"Fugaku-sama is dead," Yasui gasped. "And the hokage - the hokage -" 

"What did the Hokage do?" Itachi said, shoving out of bed and reaching for his vest. "What is going _on_." 

Yasui gulped, and she was ashen, in the afternoon light. "The Hokage has declared the Uchiha Clan traitors." She held out a torn scroll to Itachi. 

Itachi took it with lightheaded fingers, unrolled it. 

In black and white, the Uchiha clan had been declared traitors, and Uchiha Fugaku had been executed for treason. 

All of them were stripped of their ranks, and if they were caught -

"Where is Yakumi?" Itachi asked, hard, and pulled on his vest, zipping it up. His weapons pouch, his scrolls. Seals and packs. 

"He was in the mission room," Yasui said and Itachi inhaled.

"Yasui-san," he said, sharply. "Steel yourself. Find Sasuke-kun, right now, and every cousin you meet, and leave out the West Gate, as fast as you can. Namiashi-san should be patrolling there, right now. Ask for him, and get out." 

She nodded. 

With his father gone, it meant that Itachi was Clan head. 

His priority was his Clan's safety, and anyone of those who were away… 

He quickly wrote a note and sealed it with the Uchiha seal - any Uchiha blood would be able to open it. Replicated the notes and then tied them quickly to the remaining messenger birds they had. 

_Get to the West Gate. Ask for Namiashi-san. I shall see you at Suna._

He had to go get the rest of his clan within Konoha. 

*** 

They didn't have many children, thank god - Sasuke was the third youngest, and there were no infants. 

Itachi had stopped to grab Iruka from his apartment - with the Uchiha protection gone, Iruka would be fair game again, and Itachi had no intention of letting Shimura Danzo hurt anyone he cared about. 

It was two days when the final stragglers had managed to get out of Konoha and meet them en route to Suna, that Itachi realised that Shisui was missing. 

*** 

The Kazekage was not very impressed with their entire clan showing up at their doorstep, but Gaara remembered Sasuke. Together, Sasuke and Itachi managed to beg shelter for their clan. 

"But," Gaara said, very slowly, thoughtfully, "What does Suna get in return, Uchiha-san? You are merely a Clan head." 

Itachi breathed, feeling sand dig into his feet and thought of the blood they'd left trailing from Konoha. 

There had already been several hunter nin on their heels when they'd left, and their injured weren't entirely from the chaos of some jounin attempting to claim what was Itachi's to protect.

Shisui was not here. Shisui, Shisui, afraid and wary of Danzo, who never stayed home if he could help it, who avoided the Hokage tower, and never accepted an ANBU posting even though Itachi knew he was perfectly capable, was not here. 

They all knew something was desperately wrong, but only Itachi had a glimmer of knowledge why. 

_Stay away from Danzo, little cousin._

"If I succeed," Itachi said, his eyes hot and blood red, tinting everything red. "I won't just be Clan head." 

*** 

"You're leaving?" Iruka said, shakily, coming out of the genjutsu that Itachi had laid on him as gently as he could have, considering his rush for time and the urgent need to get him and everyone out. Only when they were safe, for now, in Suna, could Itachi safely let Iruka out and explain, show him the Hokage's scroll. 

"Yes." 

Iruka understood what it meant to be a pet now, and since Itachi had laid a little claim to him, he was at worse risk than ever before. 

"Why - what can you do - I should go -" 

"Stay here, and watch over Sasuke," Itachi said, sharply. "Please. Iruka-sensei. " 

He strapped on his ANBU armour. 

"What are you going to do?" 

"What we should have done, a long time ago," Itachi said. 

He held his mask and looked up at Iruka, feeling so old. So, very old. 

"I'm going to kill Shimura Danzo." 

*** 

On the way back to Konoha, Itachi's eyes burned. 

And then bled. 

And awoke. 

***

It was dusk, that shift between day fading into night, when most people's visions were, despite their training, least accurate. 

Itachi had waited till then to climb the East Gate, and drop lightly on the other side. The wards were easy enough to bypass - ANBU could do it, and Itachi was ANBU. 

It also meant, Itachi realised, that it took ANBU to catch ANBU. 

His armour gleamed bone white in the dusk, barely any sunlight. 

Hooded, cloaked, just like Itachi was. 

For two long breaths, Itachi stayed still. 

Then he took a step forward. The other ANBU didn't move, didn't back away. 

And Itachi took a chance. 

"Genma-taicho." 

For a long moment the ANBU didn't reply, then his mask tilted down. "Why did you come back, Uchiha," Genma said, softly. 

"Because he has my cousin." Itachi said. Another step forward. 

The tips of Genma's gloves gleamed briefly. Not the claws - senbon. 

"He has _Shisui_ ," Itachi said, feeling his voice crack, even if he was whispering. "Please tell me, he is alright!" 

Genma's hand shifted, a tiny ripple of shadow. And he exhaled, too short and soft to be a sigh. 

"I haven't seen the traitor Uchiha Shisui," Genma said, finally. "Nor have I seen him be executed." 

It wasn't reassuring. It wasn't.

It could mean that Shisui was dead outside of Konoha, and never made it away. Because all missing-nin were free for all, any hunter nin could take them down if they chanced upon them and it had been days. 

Weeks. 

"Hokage-sama," Genma continued, quietly, evenly, almost soft enough to be muffled by his mask, "has everyone on high alert for any Uchiha."

That meant, that meant that he knew they were alive. 

He knew that Itachi would come back. Surely it meant, he kept Shisui alive. 

"He never leaves the Tower?" Itachi said. 

Genma was very, very quiet. 

Another step forward. 

And then Genma whipped senbon towards him, a handful of deadly needles aiming for his eyes, and Itachi had to duck, push chakra to his feet, skid sideways to the wall so they landed harmlessly on the floor. 

Genma didn't wait, followed him, this time with kunai and the clink of thicker senbon. 

Thicker, heavier senbon. 

Which had a delivery system within them - sedatives. 

Itachi grit his teeth and shoved his stamina into the bright glow of chakra, felt them burn with the need for speed, watched the world slow around him. 

And he could snatch the senbon out of the air. 

Where Genma was precision, Itachi was speed, and up close, Itachi didn't need precision. 

He just needed Genma to look. 

Up.

And the world caught grey and red, saturation leeching away till everything was just, lined with blood.

"Tell me," Itachi said, as he caught Genma's hands, twisted, and then was holding up those same sedative senbon to Genma's right eye. "Where does the Hokage go?" 

"He interrogates prisoners at the Tower," Genma murmured. 

He was looking steadily at Itachi. 

"He goes nowhere else." 

Itachi exhaled, leaned in. "If I fail," he said finally. "Please kill Shisui and I. Genma-taicho. As a last favour to me." 

And then he was gone. 

***

Genma was the only ANBU who would let Itachi slip by him; there was no guarantee that the rest of the Genma's old squad would be on patrol, so Itachi stuck to the shadows, and below the streets. 

The sewers, Iruka had told him, were the real way in, and Itachi was grateful. He hadn't thought to use them before, and now, carefully balancing on the water and delicately pushing up the grating, he was close enough to the Hokage tower he could slip right in under the wards with no one the wiser. 

"Thank you Iruka-sensei," Itachi murmured to himself, as he slid up floor by floor, feeling for the dead zone of what would be a personal … torture cell covered in chakra-suppressant seals. 

Because if Shisui was alive, if he was here, he would only be unable to escape, if he had been kept in a room that sealed him away . 

Because there was no _if_ about Shisui being alive. 

Because he had to be alive. 

And Itachi would kill Danzo. 

*** 

"They're beautiful," Danzo said, tipping Shisui's chin up. 

The first few days, he'd tried fighting, even though the seals had sapped everything. 

Now, though, Danzo held Sasuke's life in his hands - even though it killed him inside, knowing that that meant giving up on the rest of his Clan, at least, as long as Sasuke, the last heir of Uchiha, was safe, Shisui fought not at all, and Danzo needed no cuffs or chains to have Shisui stay where he'd been put. 

How many days ago, had they awoken? 

Burning, bleeding, and only Danzo's handkerchiefs to wipe the blood away as his awoken mangekyo spun in his eyes. 

"Do you see?" 

All he could see were the spinning wheels, black on red on dark on blood, in the mirror, mirrors upon mirrors, Danzo and himself, multiplied into infinity. 

Just like the illusions. 

He couldn't stop them. 

He couldn't control them. 

And Danzo thought they were beautiful. 

"You're perfect," Danzo murmured, pressing his mouth to Shisui's temple, and Shisui didn't even shudder. Not anymore. "All of you Uchiha, you need to kill your own loved one to get these." 

His thumb stroked the curve of Shisui's cheek, and Shisui let the slight pressure tip his face up, further, and the blood drop smeared under his eye; the mangekyo spun like knives. 

"And here you go, just spontaneously developing them. For me." He pressed his bloodied thumb right at the edge of Shisui's eye, and Shisui had to resist the pressure and urge to shut his eyes. 

Never shut them. Never turn them off. 

If not Sasuke… 

"Just for me." 

Between one bloodied blink and the next, a shadow appeared behind Danzo. Or in front. Or - Shisui couldn't tell anymore. 

There were illusions within illusions, reflections within reflections, all he could know for sure was the pain in his eyes, in his head, and in his body, but those, those he could suffer, as long as Sasuke was safe. 

So he didn't react when a blade raised in the glass-reflection-illusion, when Danzo frowned. 

And when Danzo died. 

*** 

Shisui was alive, Itachi thought. And Danzo was dead. 

That was good. Mission accomplished. 

And if Shisui's eyes were bleeding, and he was looking thin, and more bruised than skin, and the smell in the air was thick with musk and the taste in Itachi's mouth was metallic, those were not important. Those were fixable. 

When Shisui didn't respond to anything, staring at his reflection with the blood and black knives in his irises that meant his sharingans were tearing out of his eyes - 

Itachi undid the roll of bandages on his thigh to wrap them around Shisui's face, and ignored the way something deep inside him flinched at the thought of eyes being covered. 

But Shisui finally slumped like a doll, strings cut and his limbs all loose, and Itachi could pick him up. 

He could run. 

He could run back to Suna, to get Shisui safe within Family, because Konoha had been nothing except vicious and terrible to the Uchiha, chewing into them and spitting them out, destroying them from till their eyes bled. 

Gaara would keep them safe. 

But why run. 

The Hokage did not run. 

*** 

The first thing Itachi did as Rokudaime was call a meeting for Clan heads. 

He walked into the Hokage's audience chamber and sat where Shodaime and Nidaime, their founders had sat, where Yondaime their saint and saviour had sat, where Sandaime their oldest leader had sat, and where Godaime their shortest lived hokage had sat. He sat on the dias, Shisui's unconscious body draped across his lap, and called for a meeting, ignoring the ANBU dogging his heels in silent confusion. 

"If this can happen to the Uchiha," Itachi said, to the Clan Heads, to the Clan Elders, not raising his voice even over their clamouring for answers. "This can happen to all of you. If his position as Konoha's greatest jounin, as Uchiha's greatest pride, does not protect him, then _nothing_ protects you." 

Itachi's eyes both spun bloody. 

"I am Rokudaime Uchiha Itachi, Hokage of Konohagakure," Itachi suddenly snarled. "And I will protect _all_ of you because you are all _mine_." 

***

** Epilogue:  **

The first thing _Genma_ heard Itachi do was abolish the system of Konoha's Performance Incentives. There was a rumour as to what happened to Uchiha Shisui, but no one was willing to say what it was. Just that one moment Danzo had been hokage, the next Itachi was, and anyone who tried to dissuade him - well, there was no dissuading him. 

The second thing he did was try to put Genma's eye out. 

With Genma's own fucking senbon. 

"Congratulations on your precision, Rokudaime," Genma said, catching all five of them a bare inch from his left eye. Lovely, the boy was still a brat. 

"Congratulations on your promotion, Genma-gensui," Itachi said, leaning back onto the armrest at his dias, the hat of office carefully tilted on his head. "You are to assemble a squad of shinobi you trust." 

"How am i suddenly a General?" Genma said. 

"Because I am hokage and I can do what I want," Itachi said, with the slightest of smiles. "I also set a dangerous precedent, taking the jounin promotion etiquette and applying it to the post of Hokage." He curled his hand into a fist and tipped his cheek against it. "Hatake Kakashi is in therapy now," he continued, "but I would like no further attempts on my life or position. See to it, Genma-gensui." 

Genma thought he could feel a headache throb. 

"People are going to keep trying to murder your brat-face, Hokage-sama." 

"Please, we are so familiar," Itachi said. "It's Itachi-sama. And your first task is taking care of - that." 

He gestured at the body in the base of the dias. 

Yakushi Kabuto's body was pristine. 

And very dead.

One of the most wily of Konoha's traitors had just attempted to assassinate Uchiha Itachi, HAD killed Hiruzen Sarutobi, and now was dead with Itachi as unmarked as fresh fallen snow. 

Itachi flicked his hand toward Genma. "Those were useful senbon - you should make more of them for Iruka-sensei. Dismissed." 

*** 

"Iruka-sensei," Itachi said, "You're doing five shifts at the mission room, a full load of classes at the Academy, and act as my personal assistant." 

"You refused all of the previous personal assistants," Iruka pointed out. 

"They were terrible," Itachi said dismissively. "None of them knew anything about the Hokage's position. Oh, and the third one tried to assassinate me." 

"She what," Iruka said. 

"Genma-gensui sedated her, and now she's in counselling," Itachi shrugged. 

Which could mean either Torture & Interrogation or actual Counselling; Itachi tended to use both terms loosely. 

To be fair, most of the shinobi used those terms loosely, because Counselling was sometimes akin to torture.

"You need a personal assistant," Iruka insisted. 

"Yes, but it can't be you," Itachi said, thoughtfully. 

Iruka blinked. "Why not?"

Maybe he found Iruka inadequate too. 

"You're Headmaster of the Academy now." 

"I am _what_." 

Itachi blinked felinely, slow and almost bored. 

"You can't just promote whoever you feel like, that's not what being Hokage is!" 

"Is it?" Itachi said, eyes widening with exaggerated surprise. "Genma-gensui didn't have any issues with it." 

"I did," Genma muttered.

"And Headmaster is an appointment not a promotion, with a perfectly nepotistic increase in salary," Itachi said. "It conveniently means you're located in one of the safest locations of Konoha. All those children are such useful alert systems before someone can get at you for my favour." 

He smiled while Iruka glared. Itachi had been TRYING for the last few weeks to get Iruka to quit one of his jobs. When Iruka had said he'd needed them for money because chuunin paid very little salary, and teachers barely any more, Itachi had offered to cover all his living expenses and get him a bodyguard. As the Hokage's… well, pets were illegal now, but Iruka enjoyed a certain exclusive position as the Hokage's _favourite_ and lover, and some shinobi not only thought the abolishment of the KPI system rankling, they also thought it'd hit the Hokage hardest where he loved. Iruka'd refused the bodyguard too. 

But now Itachi was suggesting using every damn child in Konoha as a meatshield between attackers and Iruka. 

"No. I'll take the damn bodyguard," he said finally. "And I'll drop the mission room shifts. Which candidates did you have in mind?" 

"Oh? Really? What a coincidence, then, that I have the perfect candidate right here. Umino Iruka, this is my cousin, Uchiha Shisui. Cousin, Iruka's safety is your problem now." 

Shisui stepped out from the shadows, still looking a little shaky but as Itachi no doubt predicted, Iruka couldn't help but have to accept the man; he clearly needed to do _something_ that wasn't panic in a medical ward. 

"I look forward to working with you, Shisui-san," Iruka said, resignedly. 

"This is just an excuse to make me go on walks isn't it, Itachi-kun," Shisui said. 

"Obviously so. Now go get me lunch, Iruka-sensei. I'm hungry." Itachi said and tipped his hat forward, but it wasn't enough to hide his widening smile. 

 

 

END

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Year End Bonus](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18703684) by [drelfina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/drelfina/pseuds/drelfina)




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